This driver supports the zd1211 and the newer zd1211b chipsets by Zydas. ​ Atheros has acquired Zydas and renamed this chipset to AR5007UG.

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**IMPORTANT NOTE**: ​This page is deprecated, updated documentation can be found [[install_drivers|here]]

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The older zd1211 chipset only partially supports injection. ​ Any injection which requires the device to receive a packet does not work correctly. ​ So the fake authentication,​ chopchop, and fragmentation attacks plus injection testing do not work. Other basic functions such as monitor mode and the remaining attacks work.

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====== zd1211rw ======

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authored by sleek

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The new zd1211b chipset only partially supports injection. ​ Monitor mode and injection ​testing works. ​ Assuming you use a MAC address already associated with an AP, normal injection and chopchop attack works. Fake authentication and the fragmentation attacks do not work although some people have reported limited success. ​ Perhaps this depends on the revision level of the chipset. ​

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**Review ​and injection ​tutorial**

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The zd1211rw driver has been incorporated into the latest kernels. ​So ​you will have to patch the kernel source to obtain injection support. ​This ​is described below in detail.

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The ZyDAS zd1211 and zd1211b (//also known as AR5007UG//) chips are one of the most distributed wireless b/g chips in the market. They are also the cheapest, on eBay, you can get one for about 5-6USD shipping included. In the same time, these chips are very stable, with excellent range and sensitivity,​ both under Linux and Windows and you can purchase one with or without an external antenna. The [[http://​linuxwireless.org/​en/​users/​Drivers/​zd1211rw|zd1211rw]] driver, which covers the chips under linux is very well built, offering reliable wireless connectivity as well as injection and monitoring support via aircrack-ng'​s utilities.

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The following links may be helpful ​to you to learn more about the driver ​and which devices are supported by it:

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The zd1211rw was included in mainline kernel 2.6.18 as a softmac driver, known to be notoriously unstable and heavily crippled in terms aircrack-ng support. Things turned for the better when the zd1211rw was ported as mac80211 ​driver ​since kernel 2.6.25, a move which led the zd1211rw to gain excellent support for injection and monitoring. ​

The only unsupported function is the fragmentation "​-5"​ attack. A bug in the firmware prevents that. The frag attack is not mandatory for the zd1211rw driver to inject or capture packets, it's only one of the many attacks designed to penetrate WEP encryption.

Overall, its a great all-purpose chip to have for wireless auditing and general connectivity.

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This section will describe how to patch your driver for injection. There is quite a bit of variation between distributions so this describe the general steps you must take. You will have to tweak the instructions for your specific distribution and kernel version. ​ It assumes a reasonable level of unix knowledge and experience. ​ If you don't have this, ask a friend to help you out. If you can't follow these instructions then you should not be messing with your kernel. ​ Don't post to the [[http://​forum.tinyshell.be/​|Forum]] asking for detailed instructions.

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====== Patching ======

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To enable ​injection, we'll have to patch the driver first.

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You will need to have your kernel headers and full source already installed on your system. See [[zd1211rw#​installing_fedora_kernel_headers_and_source|Installing Fedora kernel headers and sources]] below for how to do this on Fedora.

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==== Modern kernels ====

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For modern kernels, good results can be obtained even when sticking closely ​to stock kernels.

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Copy contents of **/​usr/​src/​linux/​net/​ieee80211** to a safe place. This is so you can recover if things go bad or if you want to apply a new version of the patch.

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Copy contents of **/​usr/​src/​linux/​drivers/​net/​wireless/​zd1211rw** to a safe place. This is so you can recover if things go bad or if you want to apply a new version of the patch.

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=== Kernel 2.6.34 - 2.6.38 ===

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Download and expand the latest version of the aircrack-ng suite to obtain the patches or download the from [[http://​patches.aircrack-ng.org/​|here]]. Typically, you will need the svn version to have best patches. Please note that the patch names might change so you may have to adjust the version numbers in the next few steps.

NOTE: In the following lines, verbose and dry-run have a double dash in front of them.

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==== Legacy kernels ====

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​patch ​-Np1 --verbose --dry-run -i zd1211rw_inject_2.6.23.patch

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On old kernels, you need to use the compat-wireless approach.

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The most frequent road block you'll stumble upon is compilation errors with compat-wireless. They'​re not necessarily **//​your//​** fault. Every now and then compat-wireless tar balls are released with compilation errors which are subsequently fixed. If this happens to you, simply download and install a version from the previous day or two.

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If it was OK:

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=== Kernel 2.26.24+ ===

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patch -Np1 --verbose ​ -i zd1211rw_inject_2.6.23.patch ​

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Copy ieee80211_inject.patch to /usr/src/linux

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**1.** Go to http://wireless.kernel.org/download/​compat-wireless-2.6/, download the latest version of compat-wireless and untar the package: **tar xfj compat-wireless-2.6.tar.bz2**

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patch -Np1 ​--verbose ​--dry-run -i ieee80211_inject.patch

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If it was OK:

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**2.** Next up, **cd to your /​path/​to/​compat-wireless** directory and download the patch, required for injection: [[http://​www.zlaten.biz/​tmp/​zd1211rw-inject+dbi-fix-2.6.26.patch|zd1211rw-inject+dbi-fix-2.6.26.patch]],​ the fixed channel patch, [[http://​patches.aircrack-ng.org/​channel-negative-one-maxim.patch|channel-negative-one-maxim.patch]] and the [[http://​patches.aircrack-ng.org/​mac80211.compat08082009.wl_frag+ack_v1.patch|mac80211.compat08082009.wl_frag+ack_v1.patch]] for higher injection speed. Visit the general [[mac80211|mac80211]] wiki page for details.

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​patch -Np1 ​--verbose ​-i ieee80211_inject.patch

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**NOTE**: In the following lines, change "​2.6.20-1.2944.fc6"​ to match your particular system.

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**3.** Apply the patches:

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​cd /​usr/​src/​linux/​drivers/​net/​wireless/​zd1211rw

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​patch -Np0 -i zd1211rw-inject+dbi-fix-2.6.26.patch.

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make -C /​lib/​modules/​2.6.20-1.2944.fc6/build/ M=`pwd` modules

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patch -Np1 -i mac80211.compat08082009.wl_frag+ack_v1.patch.

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​cd /usr/src/linux/net/ieee80211

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​patch -Np1 -i channel-negative-one-maxim.patch.

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make -C /lib/modules/2.6.20-1.2944.fc6/build/ M=`pwd` modules

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__Note:​__ ​//the **xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx.patch** files must be in your compat-wireles-xxxx-xx-xx directory while patching, otherwise you will be asked to provide full path of the file which needs to be patched, example: ​/home/user/compat-wireless-xxxx-xx-xx/drivers/net/wireless/​zd1211rw/​zd_mac.c//

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Now copy the new modules ​to the /​lib/​modules tree to be used.

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**4.** Patching is complete and we are ready to compile our driver, type **make** for the process to begin and wait for few minutes ​to complete.

These instructions are specific to Fedora. Change **2.6.20-1.2944.fc6** to the particular kernel version you have installed. **uname -r** can help you ​determine what is currently installed.

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You need these packages already installed:​

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=== Kernels ​2.6.23 and lower ===

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kernel-headers-2.6.20-1.2944.fc6

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kernel-devel-2.6.20-1.2944.fc6

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Running the command ​**rpm -qa | grep kernel** will show which kernel ​packages are installed.

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As mentioned above, kernels prior to 2.6.25 (2.6.2**4** with compat-wireless) are shipped with the softmac version of the driver ​which in its best day supports only half the functions, half the time. In other words, if you're stuck on an ancient ​kernel, you're pretty much out of luck. Your best bet is to either install a supported kernel, or utilize one of the many Live CDs with pre-configured settings for aircrack-ng.

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If the headers and development packages are not already installed then obtain them from your favourite repository then:

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And if you're absolutely bent on installing ​the softmac driver on an old kernel, you can try [[http://​www.zlaten.biz/​tmp/​zd1211rw-compat.tar.gz|this]] source code. Be warned, you'll be disappointed with the outcome.

Some kernels incorporate the functionality built into the kernel. ​ If you want to change the zd1211rw and ieee802.11 to loadable modules, the following describes how to do this. The source of this note is this [[http://​tinyshell.be/​aircrackng/​forum/​index.php?​topic=1658.msg8736#​msg8736|thread]] in the forum.

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These are the settings for menuconfig using 2.6.20-gentoo-r7,​ changing from kernel built-in to loadable modules for the purposes of these patches. ​ This will likely work as well on other distributions.

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First, change the appropriate items in menuconfig:​

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cd /​usr/​src/​linux

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make menuconfig

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​Networking ---->

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then set

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<​M>​ Generic IEEE802.11 Networking Stack

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<​M>​ Software MAC add-on to the IEEE 802.11 netowrking stack

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all other module capable IEEE 80211 items will have automatically set themselves to <M>

If your device is not listed then you first need to determine why and correct it.

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Use "​dmesg"​ to ensure your device was properly loaded. ​ You may have do "​modprobe zd1211rw"​ to cause the kernel module to be loaded. ​ Below is an example of the zd1211rw module being successfully loaded. ​ Sample dmesg output:

Depending on the error messages in dmesg, take the appropriate action.

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Use "​lsmod"​ and ensure the zd1211rw module is loaded. Below is a subset of the output from lsmod showing the zd1211rw in memory. ​ Notice there are other dependencies. ​ Sample lsmod output:

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​Module ​ Size Used by

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​zd1211rw ​ ​52740 ​ 0

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​ieee80211softmac ​ ​35265 ​ 1 zd1211rw

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​ieee80211 ​ 35784 2 zd1211rw,​ieee80211softmac

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​ieee80211_crypt ​ 10112 1 ieee80211

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A common problem on new kernels is that the new mac80211 version of the driver gets loaded instead of the older legacy driver covered on this page. If that is the case, then you need to blacklist the modules by editing /​etc/​modprobe.d/​blacklist and add the following then reboot:

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#​zd1211rw wireless drivers

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​blacklist zd1211rw

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​blacklist zd1211rw_mac80211

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Also ensure that the time stamp on zd1211.ko module matches the date and time you compiled it. Otherwise this may mean you are running the wrong version of the module.

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===== Couldn'​t load firmware. Error number -2 =====

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If dmesg has an error similar to the following:

If dmesg has an error similar to the following:

Line 197:

Line 96:

- http://​sourceforge.net/​project/​showfiles.php?​group_id=129083

- http://​sourceforge.net/​project/​showfiles.php?​group_id=129083

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- RPM for you distribution. ​ For example under fedora it is similar to "​zd1211-firmware-x.x-x.fcx"​

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- RPM for you distribution. ​ For example under fedora it is similar to "​zd1211-firmware-x.x-x.fcx"​. On Gentoo, you can emerge net-wireless/​zd1211-firmware .

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===== Why do I get ioctl(SIOCGIFINDEX) failed ? =====

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=== Why do I get ioctl(SIOCGIFINDEX) failed ? ===

If you get error messages similar to:

If you get error messages similar to:

Line 206:

Line 105:

* Error message: "​ioctl(SIOCGIFINDEX) failed: No such device"​

* Error message: "​ioctl(SIOCGIFINDEX) failed: No such device"​

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Then [[http://​aircrack-ng.org/​doku.php?​id=faq#​why_do_i_get_ioctl_siocgifindex_failedno_such_device|See this FAQ entry]].

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Then [[faq#​why_do_i_get_ioctl_siocgifindex_failedno_such_device|See this FAQ entry]].

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===== Feedback =====

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* Instructions and discussion about the zd1211rw in the forum [[http://​forum.aircrack-ng.org/​index.php?​topic=5334.0|here]]